The only time I ever fell for a "lifetime" software purchase was back when Trillian (the IM client) was popular. That lasted less than 5 years. Then they released "Astas", which was just a UI refresh, but they treated it like it was a whole new company and product. "Lifetime" is always a scam.
Im using Jellyfin now. It's great, but it doesn't have the same support across platforms. It was nice to have a native Plex app on the TV, Xbox, etc. I'm now just switching to Chromecasts on the TVs and teaching my wife to use the app for everything.
Same here, although I'm still using it. It's doing what I got it for and some of the additions are welcome (I use live TV fairly often and some friends and I are sharing libraries) but I have been concerned. What made you switch and did you find something better?
I still actively use Plex, but I've been trying Jellyfin. It's almost there but still has some work to do to catch up to Plex fully. However, its wonderfully free from bloat. I can't stand all the crap they've added to Plex. Especially when I search for content that's IN MY LIBRARY and the result it sends me to is a streaming service I don't even have. 😡
I still find myself using Plex for its native DVR functions. NextDVR alway seemed a little bit buggier, after finally getting an IPTV source working in Plex I went back (at least for DVR stuff).
Edit: forgot to add, Plexamp and the way Plex does its sonic analysis is worth the lifetime subscription cost to me.
Scooping up a lifetime sub to Nexus, back when they were still available, might have been one of my best online moves. If a game can be modded, I will be modding it - I get SO much value from that one-time investment.
Also you're supporting modders through Donation Points. Creators get real money proportional to mod download count. The mods are still free, to clarify.
Oh yeah I mean, it's expensive. But if you're very much into modding and like me don't like your gbit download speed to be limited to 3mbit or whatever the free thing is... I get paying it.
I wouldn't pay for what yearly costs now, but the 40eur lifetime price 10 years ago sure wasn't a bad deal.
If you read the fine print, many "lifetime" warranties are like this too. They mean the "lifetime of the product" which is usually defined in the same fine print as like, 5 years or some other bullshit timespan.
Honestly the way I always look at it is just take the lifetime cost and divide it by the yearly cost and if I think the product/license deal will exist for that long (and I’ll use it for that long) it’s worth it otherwise not. Like, I have lifetime Plex and frankly I don’t expect the, to exist forever but I like the premium features and I’ve had lifetime for long enough that I’ve saved money.
Nope. I'm here to tell you from 20 years of IT experience, you should definitely get perpetual licenses, whether they call them "lifetime" or not. Fuck all subscriptions.
If it's for software you like, yes. Lemmy apps are a great example of this.
A lifetime license isn't going to sustain the dev long term. If you like the app, buy a monthly subscription that gives them predictable income every month. Do a year if you feel confident about it. But honestly monthly is probably best.
For shitty corporate apps like Adobe, pirate that shit.
No. It is not the consumer's job to support the software developers. It is the software developers' job to develop a product that they can make a living on.
You act like nobody can make a living without these bullshit subscriptions. That is simply not the case, and anyone who disagrees is brainwashed by subscription pushers. You are being fleeced like sheep with all these bullshit subscriptions.
Software developers have been around for many decades, making damn good money all over the place. Only in the recent years have the software companies turned to the subscription model for everything, because their accountants figured out it makes them more money over the long term.
Again, it is not OUR job to support them. It is THEIR job to support themselves by making a product that people want to buy. I don't want to buy their subscriptions, so they are doing a bad job of marketing to me.
I bought Affinity Photo because their software marketing was more attractive to me than any of Adobe's bullshit subscriptions. I will continue to use the product I paid for (once) indefinitely, and if it stops getting updates I will still be able to use it as long as I want because I control its installation locally.